Bith  the  compliments  of 

Eliaha  H.   Friedman 
14  .all  Street       TTev;  York  Oity  -  for  February,  1922] 


STACK 
ANNEX 


Anti-Semitism 

095 

777  An  Essay  in  Social  Science 

BY  ELISHA  M.  FRIEDMAN 

THE  discussion  of  anti-Semitism  is  to  a  large  extent  futile.  It  is 
not  a  new  problem.  In  the  days  of  ancient  Alexandria,  Josephus 
wrote  a  reply  to  Apion's  "Treatise  Against  the  Jews."  Heine  and 
Borne  had  their  say  on  anti-Semitism  a  few  generations  ago ;  Herzl,  in  his 
discussions  of  the  Jewish  problem,  discoursed,  on  it  with  a  thoroughness 
and  finality  that  defy  amplification,  and  Nordau  and  Zangwill  have  illumi- 
nated the  field  in  their  brilliant  style.  The  sole  justification  for  attempting 
to  supplement  the  vast  amount  of  material  listed  in  the  bibliography 
of  anti-Semitism  by  the  late  Joseph  Jacobs  is  the  fact  that  in  the  past 
twenty  years  the  sciences  of  psychology  and  sociology  have  made  great 
strides,  and  throw  a  new  light  on  the  diagnosis  of  this  running  sore  of 
society. 

Anti-Semitism  does  not  deal  with  what  the  Jew  does,  but  rather 
with  what  is  done  to  him,  and  what  is  said  of  him.  The  prejudice  against 
the  Jew  is  confined  to  no  one  country.  In  America  he  is  ostracized 
socially  and  thereupon  stigmatized  as  clannish.  In  Western  Europe  he  is 
discriminated  against  and  thereupon  hated.  In  Eastern  Europe  the 
Jew  is  ghettoed,  and  thereupon  beaten.  In  the  newly  established  states 
of  Europe  he  is  subject  to  a  fierce  mob  passion.  The  nationalities  which 
have  recently  realized  their  aspirations  are  jealous  of  their  new  status. 
The  younger  countries  of  Europe  are  more  destructive  in  their  attitude 
toward  minor  nationalities,  just  as  freshly  generated  or  "nascent"  oxy- 
gen is  extraordinarily  active  in  chemical  reactions.  The  Jews  are  having 
a  hard  time  in  the  succession  states  of  the  old  Austrian  empire.  Again, 
in  the  countries  worsted  in  the  World  War,  the  Jew  has  been  the  scape- 
goat of  a  sullen  and  thwarted  populace,  and  in  the  victorious  countries 
a  psychological  reaction  has  exposed  the  Jew  to  all  that  is  mean  in 
human  nature.  The  brotherhood  that  prevailed  femong  the  several 
elements  of  the  belligerent  nations  during  the  war  was  fostered  by  the 
motive  of  self-preservation  of  the  group.  After  victory  was  assured, 
all  the  lofty  aspirations  and  the  generous  enthusiasms  were  relaxed  and 
were  replaced  by  their  antitheses.  The  tide  ran  out  after  its  full  flood 
and  it  exposed  minorities  and  weak  elements  in  the  population  to  the  fury 
and  rancor  of  tired  "patrioteers." 

1 


2          ANTI-SEMITISM— AN  ESSAY  IN  SOCIAL  SCIENCE 

Current  Causes  of  Anti-Semitism 

'"PHE  current  forms  of  anti-Semitism  are  not  different  from  its  ante- 
bellum  phases.  The  primitive  man's  fear  of  the  tribesman  outside 
his  clan  was  manifested  with  but  a  thin  disguise  in  European  society 
before  the  war.  No  doubt  an  important  cause  of  anti-Semitism  is  the  ex- 
istence of  the  Jews  as  scattered  minorities.  Prior  to  the  exile  from  Pal- 
estine, anti-Semitism  was  unknown.  It  became  manifest  after  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  first  commonwealth.  Any  unabsorbed  social  group  generates 
the  ill  will  of  the  majority  in  much  the  same  way  as  unabsorbable  material 
in  the  body  produces  a  reaction  in  the  surrounding  tissue.  Sociologists 
tell  us  that  it  is  characteristic  for  the  superior  culture  to  absorb  the 
inferior;  the  dynamic  to  overwhelm  the  static.  For  this  reason  the 
Jew  remained  practically  unabsorbed  until  the  modern  age  of  enlighten- 
ment, and  for  this  reason  also  is  assimilation  increasing  so  rapidly  in 
western  lands.  The  flourishing  and  dynamic  culture  of  the  civilized 
countries  is  absorbing  the  static  culture  of  the  ghetto.  The  Jew,  having 
such  a  high  social  self-consciousness,  or  being  more  highly  charged  with 
his  spiritual  tradition,  amalgamates  more  slowly  than  other  elements  of 
the  population.  The  seeming  slowness  of  this  movement  is  an  irritant 
to  the  non-Jewish  world  and  the  persistence  of  the  Jew  as  a  distinctive 
cultural  group  is  resented  by  the  dominant  group.  It  is  an  implied  chal- 
lenge to  the  supremacy  of  the  culture  of  the  lands  where  Jews  dwell. 

Again,  in  the  United  States,  where  the  national  spirit  is  not  fixed, 
as  in  Europe,  but  is  evolving,  the  culture  of  the  immigrant  cannot  be  ad- 
mitted on  equal  terms  with  the  dominant  culture  of  the  country,  and  there- 
fore the  natives  have  contempt  for  the  immigrants,  the  successive  groups  of 
whom  were  dubbed  "Mickies,"  "Heinies,"  "Norskes"  and  "Dagoes."  The 
Jewish  immigrant  shares  this  ascription  of  cultural  inferiority.  Our 
age  sets  up  material  standards,  whose  superficiality  forms  a  basis  for 
a  simple  judgment.  The  daily  bath  and  shave  are  the  criteria  rather 
than  the  beauty  of  the  spirit.  Yet  the  garb  of  the  dirty  immigrant  may 
clothe  the  grandson  of  Isaiah.  Neatness  of  dress  and  personal  cleanliness 
subsequently  dispel  much  of  the  aversion  to  the  new  arrival. 

Not  least  of  the  causes  of  anti-Semitism  is  the  world's  ignorance 
of  the  Jew.  In  the  Middle  Ages  mystic  powers  were  ascribed  to  him. 
Because  the  Mosaic  code  of  diet  and  of  hygiene  spared  him  from  the  Black 
Death  and  other  plagues,  the  Christian  world  charged  him  with  being  the 
miraculous  instigator  of  the  epidemics  that  visited  Europe.  The  tissue  of 
lies  propagated  by  the  clergy  and  the  ecclesiastical  edicts  forbidding  inter- 
course with  Jews  perpetuated  this  ignorance.  With  the  age  of  enlighten- 
ment, the  ascription  of  supernatural  powers  to  the  Jew  became  less 
frequent,  except  in  benighted  Russia,  from  whose  murky  intellectual  life 
the  original  "protocols"  issued,  and  except  upon  the  part  of  an  occasional 


ANTI-SEMITISM— AN  ESSAY  IN  SOCIAL  SCIENCE          3 

infantile  mind  such  as  that  of  the  Detroit  tinker.  Enfranchisement  and 
intermarriage,  the  cultural  assimilation  and  biological  fusion  of  the  Jew, 
have  dispelled  many  fictions  concerning  him,  and  thus  to  some  extent 
softened  the  blows  of  anti-Semitism. 

As   the  Psychoanalyst  Sees  It 

HPHE  effects  of  anti-Semitism  have  been  twofold.  On  the  negative  side 
the  Jew  has  at  times  accepted  the  anti-Semite's  rating  of  him.  As  a 
result  there  has  developed,  according  to  the  psychoanalysts,  an  inferiority 
complex.  The  attitude  of  the  partly  assimilated  Jew  toward  his  less 
favored  brother  has  been  tinged  with  the  anti-Semitism  of  the  non- 
Jewish  world.  A  peculiar  example  is  the  remark  of  a  Jew  who  has  reached 
high  distinction  in  his  calling:  "If  the  Jews  have  produced  a  Jesus,  they 
have  also  had  their  Shylocks."  The  speaker  was  unconscious  of  the  compli- 
ment he  paid  the  Jewish  people  in  being  able  to  go  to  history  for  its  heroes 
and  being  compelled  to  go  to  fiction  for  its  villains.  This  inferiority  com- 
plex was  particularly  evident  during  the  patrioteering  mania,  when  so 
many  of  our  Jews  suffered  from  an  attitude  of  over-compensation.  They 
were  not  willing  to  be  merely  100  per  cent  American  or  pro-Ally  but  felt 
they  must  profess  a  150  per  cent  loyalty.  They  leaned  forward  so  far  as 
to  appear  ludicrous  to  the  rest  of  the  community.  This  inferiority  complex 
has  a  peculiar  effect  on  the  psychology  of  the  partly  assimilated  Jew.  He 
is  like  a  frightened  hare,  and  is  ever  eager  with  significant  suddenness  to 
prove  his  Americanism,  his  broad-mindedness  and  his  indifference  to  the 
influence  of  his  spiritual  tradition.  In  stressing  the  continuity  of  the  his- 
tory of  the  Jewish  people,  in  reviving  its  group  consciousness,  and  re- 
awakening its  productive  capacities,  Zionism  restored  to  the  Jew  his  self- 
respect  and  his  dignity.  It  resolved  his  mental  conflict  and  dispelled  his 
complex. 

As  a  result  of  the  Jew's  accepting  the  anti-Semite's  rating  of  him  as 
an  inferior,  the  tendency  toward  intermarriage  is  accelerated.  It  is  a  pecu- 
liar circumstance  that,  for  example  in  Germany  where  statistics  of  mar- 
riage are  classified  by  religious  groups,  the  percentage  of  men  that  marry 
outside  the  Jewish  faith  is  far  greater  than  of  women,  and  the 
reason  is  that  in  our  man-made  civilization  the  male  has  the  initiative  in 
choosing.  Another  circumstance  is  that  the  Jewish  mate  in  these  marriages 
usually  has  qualifications,  either  of  wealth,  intellectual  capacity,  or  social 
position,  which  offset  the  stigma  of  being  a  descendant  of  the  prophets. 

Another  effect  of  anti-Semitism  is  that  repression  makes  the  Jew 
the  underdog  of  society.  He  therefore  joins  heartily  in  all  movements 
which  promise  a  more  tolerant  day.  He  is  in  the  forefront  of  the  move- 
ment to  ameliorate  the  unhappy  lot  of  the  negro  in  the  United  States. 
For  a  reason  other  than  the  Biblical,  "For  ye  were  strangers  in  a  strange 


21 17702 


4          ANTI-SEMITISM— AN  ESSAY  IN  SOCIAL  SCIENCE 

land,"  he  obeys  the  injunction  to  deal  kindly  with  the  downtrodden.  By 
reason  of  persecution  or  ostracism,  the  Jew  has  acquired  a  social  sym- 
pathy and  has  become  spiritually  attuned  to  the  harmonies  of  a  juster 
social  order.  Outlawed  in  some  countries  and  ostracized  in  others,  he 
becomes  objective,  less  the  creature  of  his  environment  than  its  moulder. 
As  a  critic  of  our  civilization,  he  aids  in  its  true  preservation,  for  society 
is  in  stable  equilibrium  between  the  opposing  forces  of  progress  and 
inertia.  To  the  extent  that  anti-Semitism  supplies  the  world  with  a  group 
of  critics,  it  is  a  positive  force  for  good  in  the  evolution  of  a  better  world. 


Anti-Semitism  an  Incentive  to  Genius? 

A  CCORDING  to  the  psychoanalysts,  an  inferiority  complex  is  fre- 
•^  quently  the  mainspring  of  creative  genius.  The  defects  of  Demos- 
thenes and  Beethoven,  it  is  held,  prompted  their  effort  to  triumph  over 
their  difficulties.  Who  can  say  but  that  the  repression  of  the  Jewish 
people  by  the  non-Jewish  world  and  the  Jew's  feeling  of  inferiority 
have  resulted  in  the  development  of  the  geniuses  in  the  several  sciences. 
Hounded  for  centuries  and  handicapped  to  this  day,  the  Jew  is  running 
his  race  on  his  second  wind.  In  the  language  of  William  James,  he  has 
tapped  new  reservoirs  of  energy  and  effort  after  conquering  his  first 
fatigue.  It  may  not  be  purely  an  accident  that  so  many  Jews  have  become 
distinguished  for  their  achievements  in  science  and  social  welfare.  The 
imposition  of  a  handicap  is  often  the  incentive  to  achievement,  and  per- 
haps in  our  own  country  the  relatively  slight  anti-Jewish  pressure  may 
result  in  unusual  national  service  by  the  Jew.  In  other  words,  anti- 
Semitism  may  have  contributed  to  make  the  Jew  a  pioneer  and  a  pace- 
setter. However,  such  contributions  to  civilization  are  achieved  without 
doubt  at  great  psychic  expense  to  the  Jew.  Running  on  his  second  wind, 
he  is  often  hypersensitive  to  stimuli,  lacking  in  reserve  and  poise,  and  more 
frequently  subject  to  nervous  collapse.  The  funds  of  such  progress 
are  costly  to  the  Jew. 

One  cannot  dogmatize  about  the  prospect  of  the  Jewish  people,  or 
compress  the  effects  of  anti-Semitism  into  a  formula.  Both  through  the 
pressure  of  anti-Semitism  and  through  increasing  tolerance  the  Jews 
will  be  assimilated  in  part.  Differences  of  degree  of  anti-Jewish  pres- 
sure in  Poland  and  in  Argentina  may  result  in  a  new  dispersion  and  a  re- 
segregation  in  new  centers  of  population.  Perhaps  part  of  the  stream 
of  immigration  will  be  diverted  to  Palestine,  for  the  love  of  the  land 
and  of  its  traditions  may  attract  considerable  numbers.  The  widespread 
diffusion  of  the  Jew  would  normally  make  for  his  more  rapid  assimila- 
tion, but  as  a  result  of  his  oppression  and  misery  in  Eastern  Europe, 
his  more  favored  brothers  in  other  lands  rally  to  his  aid.  Common  action 


ANTI-SEMITISM— AN  ESSAY  IN  SOCIAL  SCIENCE          5 

by  them  strengthens  their  Jewish  ties.  When  Poland  oppresses  the  Jews 
she  not  only  deepens  their  own  group  consciousness  but  in  addition 
that  of  the  Jews  of  other  countries,  who  rally  to  help.  The  relief  of  East 
European  Jewry  forms  the  common  bond  of  international  Jewry ;  by  a 
sort  of  social  telegraphy,  the  key  that  operates  in  Poland  transmits  a 
message  of  Jewish  life  which  is  relayed  to  the  Jews  of  other  lands.  The 
varieties  of  environment  among  which  the  Jews  live  would  normally  be 
disruptive  of  their  common  life,  but  group  consciousness  is  strengthened 
whenever  it  is  attacked  from  without,  and  the  disappearance  of  the  Jew 
from  the  world's  stage  is  being  retarded  everywhere  by  anti-Semitism 
in  Eastern  Europe. 

On  the  other  hand,  perhaps  Jewish  communities  may  continue  to 
live  as  segregated  groups  in  Western  Europe  and  America.  The  posses- 
sion of  a  keen  social  self-consciousness,  the  awareness  of  a  mission  and  of 
a  social  purpose  are  prerequisites  for  such  life.  And  there  are  prece- 
dents. The  few  thousand  Quakers  near  Philadelphia  have  maintained 
themselves  as  a  distinctive  religious  and  cultural  group  for  over  two 
centuries.  They  have  their  own  customs  and  traditions,  their  own  edu- 
cational institutions  and  above  all,  now,  a  message  to  their  country  and 
to  the  world.  Because  they  regarded  themselves  as  a  moving  force,  they 
lived,  and  like  some  subterranean  stream  which  emerges  in  the  desert, 
the  Quakers'  potentiality  of  service  has  been  brought  to  realization  by 
the  World  War,  by  the  starving  of  the  Austrian  children  and  by  the 
Russian  famine.  Most  truly  Christian  of  sects,  they  have  attempted  to 
heal  the  wounds  of  a  most  un-Christian  war.  Similarly,  a  living  function- 
ing Jewry  may  survive  and  enjoy  the  respect  of  the  world.  An  apathetic 
Jewry  will  not  survive  and  will  be  hated  in  the  process  of  disappearing. 

Finally  if  the  Diaspora  Jewry  should  disappear  and  a  small  Pal- 
estinian Jewry  remain,  anti-Semitism  will  probably  cease,  for  while 
anti-Jewish  sentiment  may  persist,  it  will  not  be  of  the  form  now 
known  as  anti-Semitism,  but  will  partake  rather  of  the  nature  of  a 
national  "phobia,"  such  as  Anglophobia  and  Germanophobia  now  preva- 
lent, say,  in  France,  or  the  envy  of  the  ancient  Jewish  commonwealth 
by  some  of  its  neighboring  peoples.  If  the  Palestinian  Jewish  community 
attains  a  population  of  one  million  souls  or  more,  it  should  then  be  in  a 
position  to  absorb  modern  culture  and  yet  live,  as  the  hitherto  static 
Chinese  people  have  absorbed  it  and  yet  maintained  their  national  identity. 
Perhaps  this  is  one  of  the  implications  of  Palestine  to  the  Diaspora,  that 
should  non-Palestinian  Jewry  be  absorbed  and  cease  to  be,  its  disappear- 
ance should  not  result  in  the  dissolution  of  an  historic  people  which  still 
has  great  capacity  for  service  to  mankind.  Furthermore,  a  center  of  pro- 
gressive culture  and  historical  development  in  Palestine  may  recharge 
the  remnants  of  non-Palestinian  Jewries. 


6          ANTI-SEMITISM— AN  ESSAY  IN  SOCIAL  SCIENCE 

7*  Assimilation  the  Answer? 

"W7"HAT  shall  be  the  response  of  the  Jew  to  the  thrown  gauntlet  of 

anti-Semitism?  How  shall  we  meet  it?  Shall  we  send  telegrams 
to  the  Fords,  challenge  them  to  debates  and  spread  ourselves  over 
our  weekly  Jewish  magazines  and  stimulate  our  detractors  by  the 
publicity  they  seek,  or  shall  we  ignore  their  jeers  and  let  the  storm  beat? 
Shall  we  make  common  cause  with  our  kinsmen  overseas,  who  vicariously 
assume  for  us  our  measure  of  persecution?  Or  shall  we  envisage  the 
place  of  the  Jew  in  American  life,  constitute  a  positive  social  force  to 
spread  the  idea,  now  rejected  and  despised,  of  the  brotherhood  of  man, 
as  Israel  once  did  the  fatherhood  of  God,  and  live  our  lives  sans  peur  et 
sans  reproche? 

Is  assimilation  to  be  our  answer  to  the  challenge?  Suffer  and  smile 
benignly:  the  solution  is  for  the  ages — such  is  the  opinion  expressed  to 
the  writer  by  one  Jew,  a  leading  research  man  in  his  field  in  the  United 
States. 

In  a  recent  and  sympathetic  presentation  of  the  problem  in  the 
Atlantic  Monthly,  Paul  Scott  Mowrer  writes,  "Until  there  is  evidence  of 
a  rapidly  increasing  assimilation,  the  Jewish  question,  with  its  attendant 
fervor  of  anti-Semitism,  will  continue  to  occupy  men's  minds."  In  brief 
Mr.  Mowrer  and  other  friends  of  the  Jewish  people  say,  "If  you  would 
cease  to  be  hated,  die."  The  Jewish  people  need  no  such  prescription. 
Mr.  Mowrer  and  the  assimilationist  Jews,  who  are  impatient  at  the  rate 
of  intermarriage,  are  using  the  wrong  standard  of  measurement.  We 
measure  the  inter-stellar  spaces  not  with  yard  sticks  but  with  light  years» 
and  we  should  measure  the  rate  of  assimilation  of  a  people  not  by  years 
of  an  individual's  life  but  by  the  generations  of  a  nation's  history.  By 
such  a  standard  the  Jewish  people  are  being  rapidly  absorbed.  In 
the  Scandinavian  countries,  in  Italy  and  in  Spain,  the  Jewish  group  has 
practically  ceased  to  be.  The  Spanish  and  Portuguese  Jews  who  came  to 
the  United  States  in  the  17th  and  18th  centuries  are  no  longer  in  our 
midst.  Their  distinctive  names  appear  now  and  anon  in  purely  Christian 
circles.  Intermarriage  can  not  be  forced.  As  Leroy-Beaulieu  said,  the 
Jews  have  withstood  centuries  of  fierce  persecution  but  may  be  unable 
to  withstand  the  warm  sun  of  tolerance. 

Indeed  one  has  but  to  trace  three  generations  of  the  typical  Jewish 
family  in  the  United  States — the  immigrant  either  steeped  in  Talmudic 
learning,  or  at  least  cherishing  its  traditions;  the  children,  who  in  the 
competition  of  interests  of  our  tense  American  life,  neglect  their  Jewish 
studies,  without  which  an  appreciation  of  Hebraic  values  is  impossible; 
the  grandchildren,  who  frequently  marry  out  or  else  are  mentally  pre- 
pared to  do  so. 

Besides,    artificially    stimulated    assimilation   is    a    poor    protection 


ANTI-SEMITISM— AN  ESSAY  IN  SOCIAL  SCIENCE          7 

against  anti-Semitism.  The  wife  of  a  Budapest  physician,  who  took 
refuge  in  America,  told  of  a  sad  but  amusing  case  in  point.  At  the  begin- 
ning of  the  anti-Jewish  demonstrations  in  Hungary  scores  of  Jews  became 
baptized,  in  the  hope  of  escaping  the  lot  of  their  co-religionists.  After 
venting  its  fury  on  the  avowed  Jews,  the  mob  turned  to  those  who  had 
become  converted  and  even  sought  out  the  unfortunates  whose  parents 
or  grandparents  were  Jews  and  visited  upon  them  the  penalty  of  having 
one-half  or  one-quarter  Jewish  blood  in  their  veins. 

Or  coming  nearer  to  our  own  shores,  of  the  Jews  who  occupied  high 
places  in  government  circles  during  the  war,  those  that  had  married 
out  were  not  for  that  reason  spared  in  the  ranting  of  the  French  news- 
paper correspondent,  Stephane  Lauzanne,  in  his  denunciation  of  the 
Treaty  of  Versailles,  nor  did  Ford's  anonymous  yellow  dog  refrain  from 
barking  at  them.  The  study  of  Professor  Drachsler  indicates  that  the 
consummation  so  devoutly  wished — that  the  melting  pot  should  melt — is, 
historically  speaking,  being  realized  rapidly.  To  foster  the  process  would 
be  cowardice,  to  hasten  it  would  be  contemptible.  A  deliberate  repudia- 
tion of  the  past  would  be  a  taunt  to  our  fathers.  Even  those  Jews,  who 
most  desire  the  disappearance  of  the  Jewish  people,  would  not  have  it 
make  an  unseemly  valedictory.  They  insist  that  the  exit  from  the  stage 
of  history  be  graceful. 


The  Only  Consistent  and  Effective  Answer 

HPHE  reply  of  the  Jewish  people  to  the  challenge  of  anti-Semitism  should 
not  be  consciously  and  cannot  be  courageously  intermarriage.  That 
process  is  inevitable.  Mingling  in  the  same  circles  professionally  or  so- 
cially young  people  at  the  threshold  of  the  great  adventure  of  life 
are  not  likely  to  heed  restrictions.  The  Jews'  response  to  the  challenge 
of  anti-Semitism  should  be  aggressively  spiritual.  They  should  translate 
up  to  the  spiritual  level  the  reply  of  Foch  at  the  Marne,  "My  right  is 
turning,  my  center  recedes,  I  shall  attack." 

After  sixty  generations  of  persecution  and  of  continuous  intellectual 
application  the  Jewish  people  today  is  the  end  product  of  an  historic 
experiment  in  biological  selection,  and  is  capable  of  great  service  to  the 
world.  Furthermore,  scattered  in  many  lands  and  of  a  culturally 
maturer  people  the  Jew,  is  in  a  position  to  translate  into  deed  some  of  the 
finest  conceptions  of  internationalism,  and  to  be  the  apostle  of  a  higher 
order  of  human  society.  It  was  his  ancestors,  the  prophets  Malachi  and 
Isaiah,  who  uttered  the  lofty  conceptions,  "Have  we  not  all  one  Father, 
hath  not  one  God  created  us  all,"  and  "My  house  shall  be  a  house  of 
prayer  for  all  peoples."  Internationalism,  before  the  war  a  blessed  word, 
has  become  a  term  of  opprobrium  in  a  day  when  all  the  meanest  passions 


8          ANTI-SEMITISM— AN  ESSAY  IN  SOCIAL  SCIENCE 

rule.  If  the  Jew  would  live  true  to  his  spiritual  tradition  he  should, 
despite  the  attacks  of  petty  minds,  consistently  and  courageously  reaffirm 
the  international  ideals  which  were  flouted  in  the  recent  Carthaginian 
peace,  ideals  which  are  ignored  in  the  promulgation  of  trade  restrictions 
in  the  new  states  of  Europe,  and  which  remain  unsensed  by  a  vision  nar- 
rowed to  petty  political  boundaries.  In  recent  international  conferences 
the  world  has  seen  how  frequently  "patriotism  is  the  last  refuge  of 
scoundrels." 

To  ask  the  Jew  to  respond  to  the  challenge  of  anti-Semitism  as  an 
individual  by  practising  restraint  of  material  expression  is  to  give  gratuit- 
ous advice.  We  mould  our  character  and  conduct  not  by  resolutions  but 
by  the  service  of  a  cause  greater  than  ourselves.  By  losing  himself  in 
service  the  modern  Jew  will  find  his  soul.  Anti-Semitism  is  a 
challenge  to  Jewry  to  revivify  its  traditions  and  ideals.  It  is  a  chal- 
lenge to  the  ministry,  a  call  to  more  earnest  and  significant  effort,  not 
that  it  will  dispel  the  hatred  of  the  non-Jewish  world,  but  that  it  will  steel 
the  hearts  of  Jewry  to  face  contumely  as  our  fathers  did,  with  fortitude 
and  faith.  Anti-Semitism  is  a  challenge  to  Jewish  scholars  to  think  and 
to  write  on  the  problem.  Such  works  as  those  of  Berkson,  Drachsler,  and 
Dushkin  on  the  problem  of  the  Jewish  cultural  adjustment  to  the  American 
environment  are  invaluable  in  developing  the  scientific  approach  to  Jew- 
ish communal  problems.  Our  problems  are  sufficiently  numerous  and 
perplexing  to  make  the  School  for  Jewish  Social  Welfare  a  living,  func- 
tioning body.  Anti-Semitism  is  a  challenge  to  Jewish  philanthropists  to 
support  these  studies  and  these  efforts.  Is  it  too  much  to  hope  that  some 
one  will  establish  a  fund  in  memory  of  the  late  Professor  Friedlaender, 
whereby  American  Jewry  may  be  recharged  from  that  wellspring  of  our 
spiritual  lives,  East  European  Jewry,  that  distinguished  scholars  may 
occasionally  come  to  our  shores  to  revive  the  soul  of  the  native  Jewry  of 
America,  to  teach,  guide  and  inspire  it,  that  Israel  may  contribute  richly 
in  service  to  American  life  and  to  the  development  of  international  amity 
and  understanding? 

Whatever  be  the  ultimate  racial  composition  and  cultural  character 
of  the  American  people,  American  Jewry  should  be  true  to  the  vision  of 
Dr.  Charles  W.  Eliot,  that  America  should  not  aspire  to  a  dead  level  of 
uniformity  and  standardization,  an  aggrandized  Gopher  Prairie  and  an 
enlarged  Main  Street,  but  that  each  of  the  group  heritages  be  developed 
to  the  enrichment  of  our  common  life,  that  America  be  a  pattern  for  the 
world  of  a  single  political  commonwealth  with  a  common  culture,  yet  not 
devoid  of  the  nuances  imparted  by  the  diverse  origin  of  its  constituent 
peoples.  From  such  a  conception,  let  no  anti-Semitism  stampede  us. 


